celebrating abundance

ABUNDANCE//biking to my studio the past few weeks, I looked for ripe persimmon trees in public places. I would occasionally pass trees full of ripe fruit behind tall fences and lament the wasted fruit. After the boom of home gardens I watched many vegetables spoil on the vine. (@sarahmirk wrote a great lil zine about their personal rules for gleaning--not taking from people's gardens but fruit trees along the sidewalks, when fruit is falling from the tree--a sign no one is harvesting)

And then one day, in front of one of those fenced off overloaded trees was a 5 gallon bucket of persimmons. How many is too many? I brought home a bag full, sliced and dried them and now have sunny orange-sweet slices all winter.

With plenty left over to bake something for the Free Fridges.

Thanksgiving is complicated to celebrate. Historically it glorifies the fiction of the settler-in-need, nevermind the gory facts of colonialism and its legacy. Many of us are here because our ancestors were opportunistic, claimed land that wasn't up for claiming, bullied ahead with violence and unearned confidence and never really backed down.

I don't want to celebrate that.

I am grateful for a moment to be thankful of the abundance of the year, for the people who have offered support, who have shared what they have, even when it was little, preparing us all for the winter. I'm going to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast with my partner & stepkid because it is our favorite, and miss my friends in New Orleans, who will be dressed up and celebrating with oysters and pies and taking care of each other.

want to support your neighbors? @maaportland is raising money for tents and sleeping bags for houseless folks and the United Houma Nation in South Louisiana is still recovering from Hurricane Ida--you can donate here